With rise in spending power of the growing middle class in the country and increased awareness towards chemical-free food, organic and natural products sector will grow significantly in the coming years, says a report from a bank

New Delhi: Helped by the rise in spending power of the urban middle class in India, the market for organic food products in the country has been growing at over 20% annually, reports PTI quoting a top official from Yes Bank.

"The market for organic foods has been growing at an compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20-22% in the last 10 years," Yes Bank's Country Head, Food and Agribusiness, Girish Aivalli told PTI.

With rise in spending power of the growing middle class in the country and increased awareness towards chemical-free food, organic and natural products sector will grow significantly in the coming years, he added.

Yes Bank also released a report, 'Indian Organic Foods Market' at one-day conference, Jaivik India, on proliferation of organic and natural products in the Indian market.

The report said the global organic food and beverages market is expected to grow from $57.2 billion in 2010 to $104.5 billion by 2015 with a CAGR of 12.8%.

Europe contributed to the largest share of the organic foods market in 2010 with revenue of $27.8 billion, the report added.

The Asia-Pacific organic food market had total revenues of $3.5 billion in 2010 and had a CAGR of 16.2% between 2006-2010, it said.

On India, the report said that the market for organic food including exports is currently valued at Rs1,000 crore.

The report added that the country produced around 3.88 million tonnes of certified organic products, that includes basmati, pulses, tea, coffee, spices and oilseeds.

Organic foods industry presently is metro-based, with about 95% of the brands existing in top 10 metros like Delhi (NCR), Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru and other tier II cities, it said.

According to government data, area under organic farming had risen to 1.08 million hectares. In addition, 3.40 million hectares is wild forest harvest collection area.

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The comments from RBI come against the backdrop of corporate sector complaining about inordinate delays in getting clearances, especially on the environmental front

Mumbai: Alarmed by the slowdown in infrastructure projects due to policy delays, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) put the onus on the bureaucracy, reports PTI.

It advocated the Singaporean practice, where multiple agencies and ministries sit together to give their decisions on investment project clearances quickly.

"The onus for such clearance clearly rests on the bureaucratic machinery," RBI said in its annual report, released on Thursday.

The comments from RBI come against the backdrop of corporate sector complaining about inordinate delays in getting clearances, especially on the environmental front.

"A careful balancing of environmental and growth needs would be necessary. What is needed is quick, time-bound decisions under a transparent framework, and not necessarily quick clearances," the RBI said.

With the criticism of capitalism going the 'crony' way rising, RBI said there is a need for businesses to rejig their strategies and turning themselves cleaner.

"Businesses also need to rejig their strategies that aim at operating in a more competitive environment, earning normal profits within the legal and environmental framework and not try to exploit rules and weak regulation to its advantage at cost of integrity," it said.

On the demand-supply mismatch in coal, where India is forced to import in spite of having ample reserves, the RBI blamed the private sector holding rights over mines, without utilizing them.

The RBI also floated the idea of allowing foreign direct investment in the coal mining sector to take care of the problems over supply.

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According to the Banking Ombudsman from Karnataka, number of complaints regarding net banking has considerably come down now as all the banks have tighter fire walls and three levels of safety protocols

Bangalore: Karnataka's banking ombudsman received 3,647 complaints and resolved 3,563 of them between July 2011 and June 2012, reports PTI.